A judge-overseen recount will be a made of a partial recount, and of the extended count, in sa国际传媒 Centre.听
Defeated NDP candidate in sa国际传媒 Centre Loyal Wooldridge, who lost by 38 votes, didn't seem to know what would happen in the aftermath of the wildest provincial election in recent sa国际传媒 history, when asked by The Daily Courier.听
鈥淭oday, we will not be reaching a decision regarding a judicial recount. Those details will be forthcoming,鈥 Wooldridge said early Tuesday.听
But Elections BC released a statement later Tuesday that said provincial law makes clear there will be a judicial recount, regardless of whether Wooldridge requests one. It's not clear what Wooldridge meant in his statement when he said 'we', as he did not respond to follow-up emails from The Daily Courier.听
A final count released by Elections BC on Monday shows BC Conservative candidate Kristina Loewen winning the riding of sa国际传媒 Centre by just 38 votes. She won 11,031 votes to the 10,993 won by Wooldridge.听
Under provincial legislation, a judicial recount can be requested by a defeated candidate if the margin of loss is 1/500th or less of all the votes cast in a riding. The turnout in sa国际传媒 Centre was 25,747 voters, 1/500th of which is 51.听
A judicial recount will add another delay to the certification of the results. After election night on Oct. 19, Wooldridge was behind Loewen by less than 200 votes.听
He requested a recount last week after a one-vote discrepancy was discovered between the results produced by an electronic tabulator and a handwritten entry made by an election worker.听
That partial recount did not change the outcome, but over the weekend more than 800 mail-in, telephone, and absentee ballots not included in the initial count for sa国际传媒 Centre were tabulated. Wooldridge won most of those ballots but not enough to overtake Loewen.听
Wooldridge, a two-term city councillor, returned to his City Hall duties on Monday while the count was ongoing.听
鈥淚鈥檓 so proud of the historic numbers of a progressive movement we, as a team, achieved in sa国际传媒,鈥 he said of the election outcome. 鈥淭his has never been achieved by the BC NDP in sa国际传媒.听
鈥淲hile this is not the outcome we obviously worked for, itsa国际传媒 a testament of how sa国际传媒sa国际传媒 demographic is changing. It also highlights that every single vote matters, as these results were razor thin.鈥
Wooldridge did not concede defeat. But he thanked 鈥渁ll the candidates鈥 who ran in sa国际传媒 Centre: 鈥淥ur democracy thrives when everyone engages in the process.鈥
- This is an updated version of a story in which Wooldridge appeared to suggest he did not know if a judicial recount would take place. It will take place.听
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